Ho Chi Minh - Cao Dai - Cu Chi Tunnel

CU CHI TUNNEL TOUR - Half day

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Detail tour program

Drive from your hotel to Hoc Mon District to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, which is 70 kilometers North West of down town Ho Chi Minh City. The Cu Chi Tunnel system had been created long time back, from 1948 to assist Viet Minh in the combat with French. And it was continuing built over 25 years later. It was an underground city with living areas, kitchens, storage, weapons factories, field hospitals, command centers. In places, it was housed up to 10,000 people who virtually lived underground for years.... getting married, giving birth. During the American War the entire area of Cu Chi was designated a free fire zone and was heavily bombarded. From 1988, two sections of tunnels have been open for visitors.

Be back at your hotel after 4 hours travel & visit.

Tour price (Group tour - joining tour - seat-in-coach tour - daily guaranteed departure) : 16 US $ /person

Group size: 25 – 35 people who are independent travelers from different countrie
These are group tours so you may join with others who book the same package. You can also book these packages as a private tour with price detail follows

Tour price (Private tour)

PRIVATE SERVICES – based on twin room or triple room share
Number of passengers - Price per pax (adult) in US Dollars - Currency converter
Group	1 pax	2 pax	3-4 pax	5-6 pax	7-8 pax	9-11 pax
Standard tour Price/pax	80	50	45	44	40	30

Rates are inclusive of:

Full transportation by as tour program indicated.
Full meals as indicated in the itinerary.
English- speaking guide (other languages are available upon request)
Entrance fees. .

Description of service in details

Rates are not inclusive of:

Tips for tour guide, driver
Travel insurance
Expenditure of a personal nature, tips, such as drinks, souvenirs, laundry, emergency transfers & etc
Visa fee (If you don’t have enough time to complete visa before your departure to Vietnam, we will help you to obtain visa on arrival easily )
International airfare to/ from Vietnam & International airport tax in Vietnam
Others which are not mentioned in the inclusion

Remark:

Brief introduce about destinations:
Rates are subjected to changed without prior notice.
Itinerary is subject to change depending on flights, road condition and room availability
As indicated: A/C= Air-conditioning, O/N= Overnight, B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner

Group tour: To join with other people on available daily tours. These tours are fixed itinerary and departure time. It is possible to join in even your group of only 1 or 2 people. Customer do not to find other people to form the group. It is our company duty to gather the tourists for each tour. For these tours, you have to share the coach, boat and tour guide with other tourists who come from different nationalities. The number of people of this group is normally less than 20 persons.

Private tour: To do the tour privately. The tour is not fixed, it is possible to be customized for your group. All service is reserved for your group only. You do not have to share the bus, boat, tour guide with other tourists. One exception, if you stay at the boat in Halong bay - it is like the hotel in Halong - you still have to share the boat with other people.

Travel pictures: Here are the thumbnails to the selected pictures of Cu Chi Tunnel please click on the thumbnails to enlarge

The Tunnels Of Cu Chi

The tunnels of Cu Chi are all interesting, terrible, remarkable and tragic at the same time. The war that was fought here from 1967 to the withdrawal of US troops in 1973 until the bitter fall of Saigon in 1975 was both unique and brutal.

Today, a full 30 years since the fall of Saigon, the countryside of Cu Chi is still pock marked with craters of bombs that were dropped from B-52s that flew bombing raids out of Thailand. Thousands of tonnage of shrapnel and even maybe unexploded ordnance still litter the countryside. The foilage today is noticably young with very few trees older than 30 years as the entire area was literally bombed to a desert and whatever trees that were left standing were decimated by the defoliant Agent Orange.

Military hardware still litter the countryside. Bombed out M48 tanks, M113 APCs, Bell UH-1 Hueys still stand where they fell today.

And the Tunnels....they are still there, largely left intact despite years of aerial bombing & gassing. All 200km plus of it in fact. Linking villages and houses, the tunnels still zig zag the green countryside as it did during the days of Operation Crimp (1967) & Cedar Falls (1968). Tens of thousands died here, many remain lost today inside the dark depths of Cu Chi.

They had surgical theatres, hospital wards, dining rooms, kitchens, military planning rooms underground. Troops lived for years in these tunnels as the surface became too hazardous to live on. Children were born in these tunnels. In fact the entire NVLA (North Vietnamese Liberation Army) southern region headquarters was at Cu Chi, the southern most point of the famous supply line that is known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. From Cu Chi, they were able to launch attacks into Saigon such as the Tet Offensive.

So extensive were the tunnel network that it went directly under the US firebase at Dong Zu near Cu Chi. Well camouflaged trapdoors no larger than an A4 sheet of paper enabled sneak attacks from within the base. VCs would suddenly pop out of nowhere, take a shot and disappear back into the tunnel and be hundreds of meters away by the time everybody knew what had happened.

Today, the tours could take you to one of 2 places where the tunnels are open to tourists. One is right at the edge of Cu Chi on the banks of the Saigon River (in the village hamlet of Pham My Hung in the Ho Bo Woods) and the other nearer Cu Chi at Benh Dinh (at the edge of the old Michelin Fil Hol Plantation). First level tunnels have been widened to accommodate wider girths but you still have to do the duck walk. Larger individuals will have to get on all fours. Second & third level tunnels are much spookier in that they are not only deeper (up to 15-20 meters underground), they are also much narrower (definitely need to belly wiggle your way through). Not for the claustrophobic or for those with a known heart condition.

We went in for a full 100m level 2 stretch that zig zagged downhill and had several junctions and exit points. I took the first exit at 70m and clawed my way up 20 meters and out dripping wet with sweat. This was my 3rd visit but this time I knew the tunnels had finally gotten to me


Seemingly Benign Jungle Landscape Of Cu Chi	Seemingly Benign Jungle Landscape Of Cu Chi	The Tunnels Of Cu Chi

Crawling In The Tunnels Of Cu Chi	Bombed Out M41 Tank From 1970 At Cu Chi	A Buck A Bullet - Three AK47 Shots at Cu Chi

Beside A Bombed Out M41 Tank At Cu Chi	Bombed Out M41 Tank From 1970 At Cu Chi	Chu Chi Fighters Working A Furnace For Melting Shrapnel

Cu Chi Fighters Sawing Unexploded US Ordnance For Gunpowder	Cutaway Of Tunnels At Chu Chi	Dining Room Above Ground At Chu Chi

Guide Making Us Guess Where The Tunnel Trapdoor Is	Here It Is Camouflaged Under Vegetation	It About The Size Of An A4 Paper

Guide Showing Us How To Get In	Going	Going Going

Going Going Going	One Last Squeeze	He's In

He's Gone	Green Paddy Fields In The Seemingly Benign Countryside Of Cu Chi	Guide Showing Bobbytraps Used At Cu Chi

Guide Showing The Fighting Trenches At Cu Chi	I Could Not Even Get My Ass In	Inside A Tunnel Room With Well At Chu Chi

Massive B52 Bomb Crater At Cu Chi Tunnels	Matra Rockets & Cluster Bombs At Cu Chi Tunnels	More Unexploded US Ordnance At Cu Chi

More Unexploded US Ordnance At Cu Chi	Other Bombs & Ordnance At Cu Chi Tunnels	Popping Out Of A Spider Hole At Cu Chi

Rotating Barbed Spikes Bobbytrap At Cu Chi	Souvenir Mine At Cu Chi	Spiked Bobbytrap Used At Cu Chi

Taking Aim At Cu Chi	The Right End Of A Browning M1919A4 Caliber Belt Fed Machine Gun	The Tunnels Of Cu Chi.

Trapdoor Bobbytrap With Punji Spikes At Cu Chi	Trying Out An AK47 At Cu Chi	Tunnel Exit For Trench Fighters At Cu Chi

US Browning M1919A4 Caliber Belt Fed Machine Gun At Cu Chi	Ventilation Hole Disguised Near Termite Mount At Cu Chi	Viet Cong Black Pyjama Uniforms Used At Cu Chi

War Map Of Cu Chi 1965-1975	War Tribute To The 50000 Or More That Did Not Make It Back At Cu Chi	War Tribute To The 50000 Or More That Did Not Make It Back At Cu Chi

All’s for your satisfaction!

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CAO DAI TEMPLE & CU CHI TUNNELS

Cu Chi District is known nationwide as the base where the Vietnamese mounted their operations of the Tet Offensive in 1968.The tunnels are between 0.5 to 1m wide, just enough space for a person to walk along by bending or dragging. However, parts of the tunnels have been modified to accommodate visitors. The upper soil layer is between 3 to 4m thick and can support the weight of a 50-ton tank and the damage of light cannons and bombs. The underground network provided sleeping quarters, meeting rooms, hospitals, and other social rooms. Visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels provides a better understanding of the prolonged resistance war of the Vietnamese people and also of the persistent and clever character of the Vietnamese nation.

Detail tour program

AM: You will visit the Great Temple of Caodaism in Tay Ninh, about 100 km from Ho Chi Minh City. The Temple is built on nine levels that represent nine steps to heaven at which you will see a prayer session at noon. Caodaism is a Vietnamese religion with its philosophy based on Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Christianity. Its tenets include believing in one God, the existence of the soul and the ability to communicate with the spiritual world

PM: You will stop for about 2 hours to visit Ben Dinh tunnel, a section of the 200 km-long Cu Chi tunnel network that was built over 2 decades and used as an army base during the Vietnamese-American War. You will be amazed at the tunnels with their underground storeys including trap-door, living areas, storage, weapon factories, field hospitals, kitchen, command centres, etc. You can also fire M-16, AK-47, carbine rifle.

Tour price (Group tour - joining tour - seat-in-coach tour - daily guaranteed departure) : 25 US$ / Pax

Group size: 20 – 30 people who are independent travelers from different countries
These are group tours so you may join with others who book the same package. You can also book these packages as a private tour with price detail follows